St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-05-23
THE UBsTANCE of LIFE.
Is Not the Tendency In the Wrong
Direction?---Dr. Tuttle's Ser

is Not the Tendency In the Wrong
DirectiOn?---Dr. Tuttle's Ser
mon.
Rev. DR.. Tuttle preached to con-
gregation that filed the house, his first
sermon after returning from the South,
where he spent the winter.
The text was Luke xiii, Is: ga mans
life CONSISTENT not in the abundance of
the things that he possesseth." The
Savior meant to emphasize certain
marked distinction between mans
life and all other orders of life. The
power man possesses renders him
more independent OF other things. He
lives III his thoughts, in his affections,
his hopes, ambitions and activities. His
necessities are met by quality rather
than quantity. AS fast as one creates
sources of happiness in himself he is
able to spare others that are outside.
The value of possessions depends upon
the posseSsor. No one is rich who has
sought happiness in riches alone. A
dollar is more or less according to the
uses and benefits the owner extracts
from it. The kind of pOSSeSSorship
which gauges values through itself,
which places values in things which
had none before, is assigned exclusively
to man. In forming our theories, our
plans of life, we make the frequent mis-
take of supposing that success is repre-
scented generally by quantity rather
than quality. In practice we CONTRA
dict the text and say that mans life
does consist in the abundance of the
things which he possesses. And some
times L fear the world is
getting further and further from
the text, coming more and more
,x,de .nnxx Of
We seem increasingly inclined TO eSti-
mate life by the eye, by the yard-stick,
by the scales; by bulk rather than by
essence. Is it not. our growing fault
that we count our possessions in num-
bers instead of uses? That we choose
full hands instead of clean ones? How
is learning eStimated-by the vaStneSS
of the literary field one has travelled
over, or by the thorough cultivation of
it? What is the sign of happiness in
our times? Can we find home bleSt
nowadays in small houses with little
furniture and few servants? 1t has
been questioned whether our common
school system is not breaking down
under the increasing weight thrown
upon it; whether the average pupils
brain is not overcrowded with lessons
and SO hindered in the effort of educa-
ton. The danger. threatening too many
business men is the possession of more
things than they can handle-the ten
dency to spread their business into in
convenient dimensions. AS many fail
ures happen through abundance of capt.
tai as through want of it. This over
strain of care is running business men
themselves. l am often surprised to
hear the confession of persons who have
acquired large possessions, that they
are not the least bit happier than they
were in their earlier and poorer years;
that wealth has never brought them the
satisfaction and pleasure they antici-
pated. [ do not, of course, infer from
this that riches are necessarily an evil,
that rich people are less happy than
poor people; that poverty is a thing to
be desired. l believe that to acquire is
as noble as it is natural and necessary.
But, Notwithstanding this fact, the we'll
from which we draw our chief happiness
in this world is in ourselves more than
in our surroundings; in our affections,
in our religion, in our social relations,
in our deeds and pure character. AL
most everything in true living depends
upon our patient, gentle, Christian dis
positions; upon the art of making the
best of things, of converting little into
much, of being grateful for what we
have before we ask for more.